{"id":9140,"date":"2021-02-12T18:19:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T18:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=9140"},"modified":"2021-02-12T18:21:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T18:21:41","slug":"at-the-heart-of-the-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/at-the-heart-of-the-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Heart of the Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Valentine\u2019s Day, get acquainted with the organ that goes pitter-patter<\/em> and ka-thunk, ka-thunk<\/em>. The heart.<\/h2>\n

A Tiny Ticker<\/h2>\n

\"\"It makes perfect sense that a tiny mammal would have a tiny ticker. And shrew<\/a> species are tiny \u2013 the pygmy shrew is so wee that it can fit on a human thumbnail. How adorable! But such a small body means that a shrew\u2019s heart has to work overtime to keep this small mammal moving.\u00a0 This little guy\u2019s heart beats 1,300 times a minute!<\/p>\n

A Heart as Big as All Outdoors<\/h2>\n

\"blueThe blue whale<\/a> is the world\u2019s largest mammal; it can grow up to 30 metres long and weighs approximately 64,000 kilograms. With such a hefty body, it requires a heart to match. And match it does! It\u2019s as big as a car! Yep. You read that right. A blue whale\u2019s heart weighs 590 kilograms, and that massive organ works day in and day out pumping the mammal\u2019s blood \u2013 all seven tons of it.<\/p>\n

Three Hearts Are Better Than One<\/h2>\n
\"A
A Pacific octopus is one of the many marine invertebrates found in our oceans (PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with sporting eight arms, octopuses<\/a> also boast three hearts. Two smaller hearts pump blood to the gills and oxygen-rich blood back to the main, systemic heart. These invertebrates need all three hearts to keep their blood pressure in check while they swim at high speeds to catch prey.<\/p>\n

Minus a Muscle<\/h2>\n

\"\"While some ocean dwellers may boast three hearts, others have none. Jellyfish, which have swum our oceans for 650 million years, have no heart \u2013 or brain for that matter! These invertebrates are made up of 90 per cent water. How do they function? By relying on a nerve \u201cnet,\u201d which senses their surroundings \u2013 as well as the food they\u2019re after and the predators after them.<\/p>\n

Be Still My Heart<\/h2>\n

\"\"When animals go into hibernation, their heartbeat slows by 75 per cent. Recently researchers were able to monitor black bears<\/a> during their hibernation. It seems that during a black bear\u2019s seven-month slumber, its heart beats only once every 20 seconds, and its metabolic rate slows down by 75 per cent. Now that\u2019s a deep sleep.<\/p>\n

A Mile a Minute<\/h2>\n
\"\"
\u00a9 Sandy Thompson, CWF Photo Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To keep its wings working at 6,000 flaps a minute, the hummingbird<\/a> has a heart rate of over 1,000 beats per minute. When the sun goes down, these itty-bitty birds save energy by falling into a deep sleep, during which their heart rates slow to just 50 to 180 beats per minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Valentine\u2019s Day, get acquainted with the organ that goes pitter-patter and ka-thunk, ka-thunk. The heart. A Tiny Ticker It makes perfect sense that a tiny mammal would have a…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":4311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[8802,898],"class_list":["post-9140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connect-with-nature","tag-heart","tag-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9143,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions\/9143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}